Man, what is it lately with psycho men killing their wives/girlfriends and/or kids?!

Well, in this case, since anabolic steroids were found in the home, I'd say that's got something to do with this. And from something I read Benoit had allegedly threatened his wife a few years ago also. I didn't think he was one of the steroid users because he really didn't have the 'roid physique.

Steroids and prescription painkillers are probably the biggest killers in today's Wrestling. While 1960s- 70s great Bruno Sammartino is still around and in tremendous shape for a man his age not to mention guys like Ox Baker and Mad Dog Vachon (aside from the loss of a leg in an auto accident) looking practically the same, wrestlers from the 1980s on seem to be almost dropping like flies. This whole affair (Benoit was a huge favourite of mine too) has me deeply saddened, shocked, stunned, depressed. It seems he must have went off the deep end. News reports are now saying he sent his friends in wrestling weird text messages that tipped them off that something was terribly wrong and left bibles next to the bodies of his family. Horrible horrible tragedy.

What really irks me is that the WWE is cancelling Raw on Monday night and doing a 3 hour tribute to Benoit.I don't care how great a wrestler he was, all of his past successes were instantly cancelled out when he decided to murder his wife and young son.

Vince McMahon finally dropped his whole stupid "limo explosion death" finally to make the following statement on tonight's ECW show:

"Last night on Monday Night Raw, the WWE presented a special tribute show, recognizing the career of Chris Benoit. However, now some 26 hours later, the facts of this horrific tragedy are now apparent. Therefore, other than my comments, there will be no mention of Mr. Benoit tonight. On the contrary, tonight's show will be dedicated to everyone who has been affected by this terrible incident. This evening marks the first step of the healing process. Tonight, the WWE performers will do what they do better than anyone else in the world--entertain you." -wwe.com

When I found out that the show last night was cancelled in favor of the tribute (after only learning of the event a couple of hours earlier), I had a feeling it was a bad idea because they didn't have enough info on what happened. Sure enough, once the details started to leak, the show itself was apparently pulled from the air and all mention of Benoit's illustrious career and the memorial videos created by a few wrestlers in his honor were also immediately pulled from their website. It's more disturbing when I think about the tribute that Stephanie McMahon made, talking about how much Chris loved his family and how happy he was for Stephanie and Hunter when they told him they were pregnant with a child. More disturbing is that the only tribute video still on the website not only ends with Benoit's Wrestlemania XX celebration where he hugs and kisses his wife and son several times, but includes a shot where he looks at his hands in an ominous fashion...

I keep my fingers crossed hoping that it all turns out some home invader forced the events at gunpoint or something. Obviously this is about .05% possible, and I personally think that Benoit and his wife had an argument, it got physical, he snapped, killed her in a moment of blind insanity, thought what he later did to his son was some kind of mercy killing so he'd never have to grow living with what happened, then killed himself knowing there was no other way out and unable to live with himself after what he did... obviously this doesn't excuse what happened, I'm just hoping that, despite the release of information regarding a prior restraining order incident several years ago, that this is a case of temporary insanity and not a scratching of the surface for a darker, nightmarish secret life that's been happening all this time...

« Last Edit: June 26, 2007, 10:23:34 PM by tombofanubisdotcom »

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"Don't make me stain my last clean shirt with the back of your head." - Shatter Dead"A grizzly bear with a chainsaw. Now THERE's a killing machine!" - The Simpsons"I've always wanted to make love to an angry welder." - Jaws: the Revenge

I agree, but I have to ask.. didn't they do the tribute BEFORE they found out he was a murderer? I mean, I only found out about that part of it today, so assuming that information wasn't realize till Tuesday, then I can't really blame anyone (although it does lead ot a grim "Whoops!" scenario for all those who edited the tribute together...

Thanks for agreeing with me.Actually, when I first typed the above post, I figured I was a bit harsh expressing my opinion and that some of you might have come down on me for it.Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who thought the same thing.

It makes you wonder what kind of crazy sh*t was going on inside Benoit's head when he did it.

I've read that it was a 24 hour ordeal for Benoit and his family.He first killed his wife on Friday night by binding her hands and feet and then strangling her.All night passed and then on Saturday morning, he smothered his 7 year old son.Then, either late Saturday evening or Sunday morning, he offed himself.

It makes you wonder what kind of torment he went through during the periods between each killing.Either he was in total mental anguish, or he was cold-blooded and calculating. Or both.

Was life so bad for him that he decided that this was the only way out?

I don't think it was "calculating", because that would imply he'd have a way out of it in the end other than at the end of a chord. Of course it's possible, but I'm hoping that's not the case. If Benoit had thought this through ahead of time, he probably would've waited for the cops to show up, then pleaded temporary insanity or something. I think Benoit just went insane for whatever reason, and not because of steroids like the media's been so eager to start throwing around with unadulterated glee. I think the man probably had depression or some other mental instability like thousands of "normal" human beings and he finally lost it. I'm not excusing what happened, I'm just looking at the strange text messages he was sending before hand and the fact that he placed bibles next to the bodies. If it had been "roid rage" like media outlets are bringing up in a "we're not quite saying that it was but we're saying it in a way to coerce viewers into thinking that" way, I think the deaths would've been much more violent and brutal in nature. Granted, killing a child is brutal no matter how anyone does it, but do you think that a guy suffering from incontrollable chemical induced rage is going to suffocate his son with a pillow? When I get p**sed off I throw things, I smash stuff, and I punch walls. Documented cases of 'Roid Rage are about violent beatings, not so-called "mercy killing" methods like suffocating someone with a pillow like Chief did to McMurphy.

From the little pieces of into that are coming in out of this, it sounds like Benoit had some serious problems and they weren't being taken care of. Between the restraining order filed against him in 2003 to the interview of a woman whose own son suffered from the same growth deficiency that Daniel had that revealed Benoit didn't want people to know there was something wrong with his son, I think the man had problems and didn't want anyone else to know about them, probably to the point that he wasn't even willing to see a psychiatrist about them. People need to be able to admit when there's something wrong with them and get over their fear of other peoples' opinions about them so they can seek treatment.

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"Don't make me stain my last clean shirt with the back of your head." - Shatter Dead"A grizzly bear with a chainsaw. Now THERE's a killing machine!" - The Simpsons"I've always wanted to make love to an angry welder." - Jaws: the Revenge

I'd hate to point this out but this guy made a living portraying a false image. For all we know, he could be a psychotic who regularly beat his wife. We don't know.

And as for the tribute, I think it was intentional. The circumstances surrounding his death had to be known to the WWE before hand. They probably did the tribute, issued a retraction, and effectively placed distance between them and a murderer. Think about it. That would be the last time the could make money out of Benoit before it came out that he was a killer.

Of course, that's just what I think given pro-wrestling's past history with greed at the expense of the wrestler.

I'd hate to point this out but this guy made a living portraying a false image. For all we know, he could be a psychotic who regularly beat his wife. We don't know.

And as for the tribute, I think it was intentional. The circumstances surrounding his death had to be known to the WWE before hand. They probably did the tribute, issued a retraction, and effectively placed distance between them and a murderer. Think about it. That would be the last time the could make money out of Benoit before it came out that he was a killer.

Of course, that's just what I think given pro-wrestling's past history with greed at the expense of the wrestler.

I think Benoit had issues that he wanted to keep quiet for fear of how it would affect him publicly if they got out. He didn't want people to know his son had a disease, so who knows what else he could've been hiding? For all any of us knows there could be people on this board who drown bags full of kittens and pleasure themselves to reruns of the "Andy Griffith Show", but unless there's documented evidence of it, everything else is speculation. The same goes for anyone and everyone.

As far as thinking that the WWE had knowledge of the incident ahead of time, I don't think that's the case at all and, not as a slight against you (as I don't know you), but that's a ludicrous statement. Given the backlash the company's been getting ever since the facts of the incident have been released, there's no way they would've risked p**sing off sponsors, the media and even their own fans by doing something as stupid as running such a show while knowing the details ahead of time. McMahon's been running his company successfully for over twenty years and despite what people may think about him morally (based on whatever information they might construe as being factual for whatever reason), the man's not stupid enough to try and "cash in" on something like this. And do you seriously believe that the police would give Benoit's employers information on an ongoing investigation like this? It's their job to investigate the crime scene and provide information based on evidence and said investigations, not to throw out speculation that would likely lead to losing their jobs later if it doesn't pan out. Law enforcement is supposed to be about judging after the facts have been collected, not throwing around opinions before the facts have been cleared up... something that a number of supposed journalists like to do a lot of the time.

The police discovered the scene, initially reported it as a triple homicide, and WWE, albeit jumping the gun on something like this, went ahead and ran with the information given them. If the police had been more forthcoming with such details as were later released, there's no way McMahon would've okayed something like Monday night's memorial show if he'd know that there was a chance Benoit had killed his own family. Suicide is something that can be glossed over in a tribute, double homicide of a woman and child are not... unless Bill O'Reilly thinks it can be, in which case he'll run it through his hypocritically named "no spin zone" until he's convinced himself and his viewers that it's the truth. *cough*cultleader*cough*

I don't believe that what happened on Monday night was the apex of morbid marketing, it was just an unfortunate decision based on good intentions that's since turned into a public relations nightmare revolving around a disgusting tragedy that probably could've been prevented. Hindsight is 20/20 and until someone within the police department or WWE offices says that they knew the gruesome details before going ahead with the show, that's all it is.

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"Don't make me stain my last clean shirt with the back of your head." - Shatter Dead"A grizzly bear with a chainsaw. Now THERE's a killing machine!" - The Simpsons"I've always wanted to make love to an angry welder." - Jaws: the Revenge

I noted an article on the WWE web page today arguing against the "roid-rage" side of the story. For me, it doesn't matter, a 7 year old child was murdered and a wife was killed in a senseless incident. If WWE's soul concern right now is to defend against the whole steroid thing its quite shallow in my opinion.

I noted an article on the WWE web page today arguing against the "roid-rage" side of the story. For me, it doesn't matter, a 7 year old child was murdered and a wife was killed in a senseless incident. If WWE's soul concern right now is to defend against the whole steroid thing its quite shallow in my opinion.

Is your use of "soul concern" a *wink*wink* thing Dark, cuz if so that's probably one of my new favorite puns, heh heh.

Anyway, the WWE has posted their condolences to the families of both Chris and Nancy several times over, so trying to defuse the 'roid rage angle isn't their sole concern. They're trying to do damage control and cull in the media before they turn this tragedy into another witch hunt against their company and another effort to demonize their pseudo-sport instead of exploring the possibility that it was personal issues that caused this problem and not steroids, which the WWE has already had to deal with, more so than the MLB or any legitimate sports organizations. The last few chapters of the paperback version of the Mick Foley book "Foley is Good" discusses how professional wrestling has been the poster child for media hate groups instead of the blame being spread amongst other "good old American pastimes", but that's something better read than explaining here.

The point is that this is, as I've said a hundred time, a terrible tragedy that shouldn't have happened, to the Benoit family or anyone else. The WWE has already been dealing with a lot of problems with finding and keeping sponsors and the fact that one of their bigger public employees has caused such a nightmare is only going to hurt them more, despite the fact that the murders had no more to do with WWE than it did with NASCAR or the state of Delaware and they're just trying to keep that in mind. You can't blame a company for the actions of it's employees. If that was the case, the US Post Office would've been shut down after the Son of Sam.

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"Don't make me stain my last clean shirt with the back of your head." - Shatter Dead"A grizzly bear with a chainsaw. Now THERE's a killing machine!" - The Simpsons"I've always wanted to make love to an angry welder." - Jaws: the Revenge